His sympathies were aroused, and they overcame his slight resentment.
"Try another cigarette," he said, "I have here a summary of the evidence.
I will read it to you.

Do not interrupt.

Follow the details closely, and correct anything that is wrong when I have ended." Hume was still volcanic, but he took the proffered box.
"Ah," cried Brett, "though you are angry, your judgment is sound.

Now listen!" Then he read the following statement, prepared by himself in an idle moment:-- "The Stowmarket Mystery is a strange mixture of the real and the unreal.
Sir Alan Hume-Frazer, fourth baronet, met his death on the hunting-field.
His horse blundered at a brook and the rider was impaled on a hidden stake, placed in the stream by his own orders to prevent poachers from netting trout.

His wife, nee Somers, a Bristol family, had pre-deceased him.
"There were two children, a daughter, Margaret, aged twenty-five, and a son, Alan, aged twenty-three.